No matter what browser you use, there is a good chance you have come to a website that would not load. I am not referring to the sites that function incorrectly in a browser. I mean those websites that purposely deny your browser access because it is not the “right” browser. They usually come with cute messages telling you why you are not special enough to view their site.

Why am I ranting about this? The reason is simple. I do not want any of you who have websites or design sites for others to make the same mistake. Most HTML, CSS, and Javascript will function in any modern browser. If it does not for a particular user, they would be better off seeing what does not work and have a chance to fix it. Rather than making a site that may not work in some browsers, take the extra time to test your site, make it standards compliant, and ensure that it works in most browsers.

Browser detection fails because it usually relies on user agent data, which cannot be reliable. For example, a browser may be based on gecko (i.e. Firefox compatible) but may display a different name. The same may be true for any number of browsers, particularly those on mobile devices. You do not want to deny potential customers simply because their browser does not have a common name.

Photo Source: Flickr

Continue reading: Why Browser Detection Fails

Scribd CTO Jared Freedman has announced that the document sharing website in HTML 5, abandoning the proprietary Adobe Flash application that has powered their site for the past three years. The move comes days after Apple CEO Steve Jobs offered his manifesto against flash and why it was bad for touch devices like the iPad.

Web developers have long had a love-hate relationship with Flash. Some would build entire sites based on it, while others shunned it for its lack of Web standards compliance, high CPU requirements, and proprietary license. For most web hosting companies it will not matter either way in the short term, anyone with a website will need to consider what devices are supported by their website.

Scribd will move to a Javascript/CSS/HTML5 web application that works better with their interface.

“Why do you need a special reading application just to view a document?” asked Friedman.

Unlike Flash, which requires the installation of a third-party plugin, Javascript and HTML are built into all modern browsers and are becoming increasingly popular. Many of the cross-browser consistency problems that drove developers to use Flash have since faded away, especially with Microsoft moving closer to standards compliance with each new Internet Explorer release.

Source: InformationWeek

Continue reading: Scribd Dumps Adobe Flash for HTML5

Before you decide to create your own website, you should evaluate your own skill level. If you have made websites before and have experience with XHTML and CSS, you can skip to the next step. If you do not, you should start learning or consider one of the alternatives.

The second step is to decide if you want a dynamic or static site. If you choose dynamic, you should then choose a content management system (cms). Some web hosting providers will install a cms for you. Make sure you check with them. Finally, you will need to setup some type of management policy for updating the site regularly. Gone are the days of sites that can just sit there unchanged and receive thousands of visitors.

If you have no experience in web design, cannot afford to hire someone, and have no intention of learning, you still might be able to get by if your host will install your cms for you. Then, you can download a free template or purchase one. If you do not like that option, consider a site creation tool or software.

Continue reading: Create your own website

There are many design benefits to using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), but there are also technical ones that any website owner or server administrator should consider. Originally, websites were mostly just text and images with no fancy boxes, menus, or other slick layout schemes. Over time people started getting more inventive and primarily relied on tables with styles inside of them.

CSS allows web designers to use other methods, such as divs, for structure while leaving the styles in a separate stylesheet. Web browsers read through tables twice, once to understand the structure and a second time to determine content. Relying on CSS decreases rendering time, making the site faster and easier on the server.

Furthermore, html documents are smaller because the layout and design is not rewritten for every page. Most of it is contained in a single or few style sheets. Again, the obvious benefit is less stress on the server and less bandwidth and disk space consumed. As you can see, using CSS helps websites run more efficiently, which is good for both the site owners and the server administrators.

Photo Source: Flickr

Continue reading: Benefits of Using CSS

Question: My website is a little too slow. Do I need to find a new web host?

Answer:

1. Your web host - These is the easy one to assume, that your web hosting company is just offering slow service. But it might not be true. Test it. There are websites that will allow you to do independent traceroutes and other tests to evaluate your host’s network speed. You can also check general things like the CPU speed, RAM, and server load.

2. Check your own connection - You also should not assume that the problem lies elsewhere. Unless you have visited your site from another location, you may very well just have a slow connection on your end, even if you can connect to other sites just fine. Do a traceroute and see if there are any trouble spots between your computer and your server.

3. Optimize images - Image files with huge file sizes will take longer to load. Use an image editing program to make sure all of your images are small enough in size while still maintaining quality.

Continue reading: 5 Ways to Speed Up Your Website

When stepping into the world of web hosting, you will be inundated with abbreviations, acronyms, and recursive acronyms. Three that you should definitely know are: HTML, XHTML, and CSS. HTML is as old as the Web itself. It stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is the primary language of the Web. All websites use at least some of it, and a web browser’s primary function is to read it. Web servers, such as Apache HTTP Server, are designed to primarily to publish HTML-based websites.

XHTML is the extended form of HTML that was officially recommended in 2000 to clean up some of the issues with HTML 4, while also preparing for HTML 5. It has gradually become the standard for websites, and web purists insist on it. In XHTML, the structure of the site is handled in the markup, while the style is handled by CSS.

CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and is a language in itself that handles all of the style (colors, sizes, text weight, borders) of the elements on a web page. All modern web browsers support CSS, and it is very useful for sites with multiple pages, as you can quickly and easily apply new styles to multiple pages without having to edit each page individually. All three languages have standards established and maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Photo: Flickr

Continue reading: HTML, XHTML, and CSS

If you are starting a website for the first time, you have probably heard the term “Web 2.0″ and wondered what it meant. It is difficult to find a precise definition even from the man who coined the phrase, Tim O’Reilly. In an industry that tends to focus more on technical terms and precise code, Web 2.0 is more of a philosophy than a technical classification.

Essentially, Web 2.0 is a way of expressing how the web has changed from the static one-way, large media-generated websites, to the dynamic, participatory, user-generated or user-contributed sites of this century. It is important to understand this when starting a website, because most website visitors now expect Web 2.0 functionality without even necessarily knowing what it is.

Your site should include RSS feeds for syndication, space for users to comment and add their opinions, dynamically updated pages with seamless style integration (using CSS), and in some cases, user-generated content. A quick look at Alexa reveals that, aside from search engines, all of the top ranked sites are social media sites like YouTube.com, Facebook.com, and Wordpress.com. Even a site that is a simple blog allowing user comments can turn into a business. The important thing is to include users and provide them with a steady stream of content.

Photo: Flickr

Continue reading: Making sense of Web 2.0